One thing you'll need to be aware of is that I now use one large bag rather than two smaller ones. My overall efficiency was dreadful trying to brew anything over 4-5% due to the bags getting too full. A bigger bag allows me to "rain in" the grain while stirring too. This change led to a jump from under 60% to 73% in efficiency. If you plan on using the two bags supplied with the kit, I'd suggest adjusting the efficiency figure in the profile back down to 60%.

By using this profile, you can download any recipe in beersmith format (or input ones you've found elsewhere) and then instantly scale it to work with the massive brewery kit.

I picked up a mashing bag from my LHBS. It's much bigger than my pot but doesn't really matter.

It has a drawstring, so I can keep it tight round the pot, then "rain" the grain in whilst stirring. This avoids the grain clumping together.

When I do my dunk sparge, I dunk the bag in, open it up and give it a good stir for a minute, leave for a few minutes, then stir again etc. As I mentioned, my efficiency is MUCH better now, plus it's less faffing around with only one bag and less cleaning

I read most of the bigger forums. Jim's Beer Kit has some UK specific info, but focuses quite heavily on kits.

homebrewtalk.com is probably my favourite, but it's mostly US. Not that it really matters, but it's worth bearing in mind that you'll end up an expert in US craft brewing rather than UK! I really like the US craft brew scene, so it works for me. There's a mountain of information and it's a very active forum.

That's the bit I was talking about John. I do like the forum and use it loads, but just noticed it seems to have more kits talk compared to the US forums. Out of a few hundred thousand posts on JBK, about 100,000 are directly related to kits, which will then filter into the more general forums.

Homebrewtalk has (literally) millions of posts, but also with 100,000 on extract/kits, so proportionally it's much more focussed on all grain.

Actually, I don't even know why i'm bothering trying to attach figures to it, it's just what I notice when I search for stuff in either forum, it wasn't designed as a negative comment

oh aye, like I say, it wasn't meant as a negative thing. I just found that there's an incredible amount of info out there for new brewers, when you have a question you need to research, it makes it easier when you're comparing apples with apples. e.g. if I find a similar thread to my question on a forum, it helps me when it's about all grain/biab, since I know it will work for me. It's all quite overwhelming when you start out, so it's nice to focus on the threads that are following the same process as you.

It's all quite overwhelming when you start out, so it's nice to focus on the threads that are following the same process as you

you got that right

Its incredible the equipment, process and sometimes chemistry / art / alchemy thats employed in complex brewing. The good thing is its as complex as you want it to be and once you figure that out as a beginner, its great fun

Had an empty house so decided to brew a centennial blonde which I was going to keg for a mate's birthday.

Everything went well and after 30 mins of cooling I went to grab the pot and get it into the fermenter.

Unfortunately the cold water had caused the copper to shrink enough to allow water to squirt out of a space where it meets the plastic tubing. So when i went to collect my pot it was overflowing with tap water

That said, there was a clear separation between the wort and the 4 or 5 inches of tap water on top, so I tried to scoop it out as best as I could.

I took a gravity reading after it went into the FV and I only missed my target by a couple of points, so I must have got most of the tap water out. So provided it's not picked up anything that shouldn't be in there, it might work out after all.

@peterfile, I've been playing around with BeerSmith using your equipment profile. Thanks again for sharing it!

I was just wondering what mash profile you were using with it? I have done a bit of reading and if I understand correctly the Massive Brewery kit uses the Maxi-BIAB method (where the sparge water fills up the pot so by the end you've used more total water than the pot could originally hold). I found a few threads about how to program Beer Smith for Maxi-BIAB but I didn't really understand them to be honest!!

Sorry to hear about your brewing (near) disaster! Was that using the supplied Massive immersion chiller? Something to be wary of do you think?

I was just wondering what mash profile you were using with it? I have done a bit of reading and if I understand correctly the Massive Brewery kit uses the Maxi-BIAB method (where the sparge water fills up the pot so by the end you've used more total water than the pot could originally hold). I found a few threads about how to program Beer Smith for Maxi-BIAB but I didn't really understand them to be honest!!

Sorry, I should have mentioned, I just ignore the water volumes that beersmith produces (it doesn't have the ability to set up for Maxi BIAB).

Basically, I fill up my kettle with 9 litres of water, get it up to the strike temp and then mash in that. Then I fill up my FV with about 3-4 litres of hot water straight from my tap (I don't bother getting it to 80 degrees as suggested by massive brewery, it makes no difference to efficiency). Squeeze the bag from the kettle over the kettle, dunk it in the FV and stir it around for a bit. Squeeze it over the FV and then pour the FV into the kettle so that it's about an inch or two from the top. That's it. I'm consistently getting 73% brewhouse efficiency doing it that way.

Sorry to hear about your brewing (near) disaster! Was that using the supplied Massive immersion chiller? Something to be wary of do you think?

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it in future, but I think it was a one off, just unfortunate. I suppose the key is to make sure the water pressure isn't too high, so no need to turn the tap on full!

Basically, I fill up my kettle with 9 litres of water, get it up to the strike temp and then mash in that. Then I fill up my FV with about 3-4 litres of hot water straight from my tap (I don't bother getting it to 80 degrees as suggested by massive brewery, it makes no difference to efficiency). Squeeze the bag from the kettle over the kettle, dunk it in the FV and stir it around for a bit. Squeeze it over the FV and then pour the FV into the kettle so that it's about an inch or two from the top. That's it. I'm consistently getting 73% brewhouse efficiency doing it that way.

Basically, I fill up my kettle with 9 litres of water, get it up to the strike temp and then mash in that. Then I fill up my FV with about 3-4 litres of hot water straight from my tap (I don't bother getting it to 80 degrees as suggested by massive brewery, it makes no difference to efficiency). Squeeze the bag from the kettle over the kettle, dunk it in the FV and stir it around for a bit. Squeeze it over the FV and then pour the FV into the kettle so that it's about an inch or two from the top. That's it. I'm consistently getting 73% brewhouse efficiency doing it that way.

Same here. Never really needed to get it to 80. While mashing, I heat up a pan or two of water for the FV. This actually helps me, as using the hotter plate keeps the temperature of the Aga simmering plate a little cooler for the mash. It's working pretty well like that.

I'm not sure the logistics would work, but it would be good to set up an STW homebrewers beer swap?

Everyone could post up the beers they'd be willing to swap and then agree to exchange for one from another STWers list. Then give each other tasting notes! I'd happily give up 2 or 3 bottles from each batch in order to get some tasting notes and try some other people's recipes.

You could get 3 or 4 bottles sent for about a fiver via collect+ I think.

I'm another Massive Brewery convert and did my first all grain brew yesterday after previously dabbling in a few extract kits from brewuk. I wonder if any of you experienced brewers have suggestions for a couple of issues I encountered/am encountering...
#1 24 hours on and I've got no visible sign of fermentation. The room is a bit cool at 15c
#2 When I got the strike temp to 72 And added the grain, it dropped the temp of the water to 65c but the temp inside the grain bags was only 62 - even after stirring (I copied his brew day video). I wasn't sure what to do, so I just carried on. Will this cause any problems? OF seemed okay at 1044.
Cheers